I've been looking after this Pearson 365 Ketch and other than the bare minimum required to keep her from taking on water and sinking, I have resisted the urge to do any of the critically needed work on this abandoned vessel. But after waiting a year and a half, I may finally have title to a 365 Ketch with a single digit hull #. That is if I can believe the CA DMV.
When that happens, the first order of business will be to replace all the chain plates and reattach all the loose the running rigging prior to transporting her to the shipyard for a haul out. The upper shroud is currently secured with rope on the starboard side.
In order to hit the ground running, I would like to have the required chainplates in hand when I set out on what will be a very long and expensive restoration.
I have no dimensions on the chainplates other than they are 3/8" SS for the uppers. Does anyone have dimensions or drawings on the chain plates in the Ketch. If I can buy standard aftermarket flat stock chainplates that would be helpful. I am not counting on the mounting hole patterns matching up, but if they did that would be a real bonus.
This forum is priceless. Thanks to you all. Pete Weisskopf, Phoenix AZ
Pete,
First off welcome aboard! I also must say that I like your style.
Our 365 had water over the V-berth before I purchased her. The previous owner hacked the interior up with a sawzall (including wires and hoses) and abruptly died. The boat sank slowly over a period of 6 months while the wife ignored her. Fortunately, the boat was stern first in a very shallow slip and the rudder skeg kept the motor alive.
It is your lucky day. I am in the process of removing my chainplates and can supply you a dimensioned drawing. My boat is a 1976 Ketch with hull number #60??? so they should be the same. Give me a day or so and I will get back to you.
Good Sailing... Dale Tanski
I did the mizzen chainplates by taking one out and having a steel fabricator make 4 like it. I am afraid to check the main shorud chainplates but the same should apply.
Check the botton of the mast for corrosion. The origional step was steel and makes a mess. To fix it you take out the mast and have an aluminun step made few inches taller to make up what you must cut off of the mast.
Have fun they are solid boats that can take a little neglect and will give good service.
Food for thought - My mizzen chainplated were the same size as my Ensign's. I had the rigger take the rigging up 1 notch in size, and had the new chainplates upsized to match. Now is a good time to do that if you arae replacing them anyway.
OK, I finished measuring and drawing all of the chain plates. Now all I have to do is get them posted. The good news is that there are only three different kinds.
1) Main Mast Cap and Main Backstay are identical. They are made from 3/8" x 1 1/2" stock.
2) Main Mast Fore and Aft lowers are identical and are made from 1/4" x 1 1/2" stock.
3) Mizzen Mast Uppers and Lowers are all of the same. All are from 1/8" x 1" stock.
I am up-sizing my mizzen to 3/16" x 1" chainplates. This is the one item on the boat that just doesn't look robust enough.
Good Sailing... Dale
Ahoy Dale,
Thanks for your support and to all others who responded to this thread. Here's an update:
I'm happy to announce that after a year and a half, the paperwork has come through and I have received clear title to the 1976 Pearson 365 Ketch. She's vintage, hull #6.
Thus began the first task of this restoration, that being replacing all the chainplates. As Dale indicated there appears to be 3 sizes. Although I am not certain that the split backstay plates match the 2 upper main shrouds. I have removed one of each, all of which have parted below deck due to 30+ years of corrosion. I also have made Autocad drawings of these 3 which are available in pdf, dwg or dfx.
I've attempted to attach the pdf of my drawing. Since I have not found an aftermarket plate that meets these dimensions they will need to be fabricated. Currently I'm looking to onlinemetals.com to supply me with the blanks cut to the correct lengths. That way my only tasks will be drilling, radiusing and polishing.
I'm open to possibly having a fabricator make these plates in quantity. This will reduce the price and also serve as a source for all of us Pearson 365 owners. What I have learned so far is that if you have not replaced your chainplates your Pearson you most likely should.
See the December issue of "Good Old Boat", for a similar story. The bottom line is that a marine survey will not catch this defect in most older boats.
Happy Sailing,
Pete Weisskopf
Pete,
Glad to see you have the boat and are progressing. I could not find a way to post the ACad drawings, but that was me. I would be glad to E-Mail them as an attachment to anyone, but you would have to have AutoCad to open and view them.
On my 1976 hull, the backstay and main cap shroud chainplates are identical.
Dale Tanski
Dale,
I'm impressed, someone that uses Autocad. FYI down at the bottom of the "reply", if you hit additional options you can attach a file <= 128KB. My .dwg file will be posted at the bottom of this response for download. I'm using Autocad 2000 but I can save in other versions depending on what you have. I'd like to compare dimensions because the one I measured were broken.
I'm still working on figuring out posting photos.
I liked your plan to beef up the mizzen plates. However I'm thinking rather than 1" x 3/16 , I may go to 1 1/4 by 1/8. Thats because that's the closest size of chainplate covers I can buy from Shaeffer. My chainplates covers were aluminum and are long gone.
I have some documentation that states that after hull #35 the style of turnbuckle changed. My early 365 has fork-fork bronze open body turnbuckles. There is a fork-eye toggle connecting the turnbuckle to the chainplate. So our boats must have some differences in standing rigging.
Regards,
Pete Weisskopf
Pete,
I have the line drawing of the whole boat done in AuoCAD as well. I have a full blow older version at home but prefer AutoCAD Lite which I use at work. The Lite version uses a whole lot less mouse clicks. The newer the version the worse AutoCAD gets.
Thanks for the heads up on the file attach. My drawings are at work, I think. Hope so because my home system is down right now. I will attach them when I find them.
Be carefull about going up to 1 1/4" on the mizzen cap shroud chainplate. There is very little land on the deck at the point where that chainplate goes and it blocks water draining from the elevated section around the cockpit. My boat does not even have a cover for that location to minimize water blockage.
I am custom making stainless chainplate covers, my aluminum ones are shot as well. I find that the Sheafer ones do not have the same footprint and extend off of the nonskid. You might also notice that the slot in each Pearson cover is custom located to fit each application. Let me make a few to determine what it takes to do so. If they are reasonable to make, I would offer my fabrication services.
My turnbuckles were the original Navtec. They utilized a right/left threaded center rod with a square center section for adjustment that was a separate piece. The ends were open bodies. The little center separate piece holds water and are not removable to inspect the condition of the threaded sections. It appears that they are crimped on. Fortunately I broke the one under my foredeck that anchors my cutter stay. It looked just fine but the center threaded section broke under the adjustment square. This was a big warning that I did not ignore and I have changed all but the lowers on the main mast.
Good Sailing... Dale Tanski
Here is my attempt to post chainplate drawing. Hope something shows up!
Dale
Pete,
If you can't open the above file, send me your E-Mail address as I can "print screen" the drawing into an E-Mail without a problem and it comes out perfect.
Dale
Hey Dale,
I think our drawings a very similar. I had some difference in the pin postion on the 3/8 plate but I already built and installed most of the plates so I think my drawings are good. A little chasing with a 3/8 drill does help in the reassembly. Also new bolts are a must. I had the head pop off one from micro corrosion from the bonding wire. I'm putting bonding wires on a second nut where they can't cause the bolt to fail catastrophically.
Also sealing the deck core with 6-10 expoxy prior to reinstalling was required everywhere.
Only mistake I made was I made 6 missen plates not 4 like required. I beefed these up to 3/16 from 1/8". I will list these on Ebay as Pearson 365 Missen Chainplates if anyone wants to buy them. ( $50 for 2 plates and covers, my loss your gain) I thought the Shaefer Chain plate covers looked good and will fit better than the original equipment. They are stamped and offer a better seal pocket for sealant around the plate. Any interference can be trimmed. Has to be easier than making new ones.
I bought 316/316L Stainless bar stock from onlinemetals.com. A bench grinder and drill press to fab. They polished up very nicely on a belt sander. Be sure to use cobalt drills and lots of cutting fluid in the drill press. Did the whole job for around $300.00 not counting new bolts , fender washers and aircraft nuts.
Next job is to remove the Genoa tracks, make new teak toe rails and rebolt everything. My port genoa track is totally mangled from some sort of accident by a PO. There's a gap where the teak was on both sides.
Thanks for your support,
Pete Weisskopf